Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Scientist Catherine Patterson discusses findings from technical analysis of the painting, "Dancers Practicing in the Foyer" by Edgar Degas.
"Dancers Practicing in the Foyer" was found posthumously in Degas' studio in 1917. The painting shows evidence of multiple compositional changes, providing a case study for reconstructing the history of a heavily reworked painting by an artist renowned for his complex studio practice. Given the complicated buildup of layers, determining a precise date for the painting is challenging. However, Dancers is thought to be related to an 1888 George William Thornley lithograph. New findings from technical analysis provide definitive proof of the relationship between the original painting and the lithograph. Important discoveries from this analysis suggest that the artist could have initiated the painting more than a decade before the 1888 lithograph.
This presentation was created for the Art Technological Source Research Working Group of ICOM-CC during the 19th ICOM-CC Virtual Triennial Conference, Beijing 2021, on the theme of Transcending Boundaries: Integrated Approaches to Conservation.
The research described focuses on the painting Dancers Practicing in the Foyer (Edgar Degas, NY Carlsberg Glyptotek) and was a collaborative project of the Getty Conservation Institute, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Glyptotek, funded in part by the Carlsberg Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Museum Paintings Council.”
Scientist Catherine Patterson discusses findings from technical analysis of the painting, "Dancers Practicing in the Foyer" by Edgar Degas.
"Dancers Practicing in the Foyer" was found posthumously in Degas' studio in 1917. The painting shows evidence of multiple compositional changes, providing a case study for reconstructing the history of a heavily reworked painting by an artist renowned for his complex studio practice. Given the complicated buildup of layers, determining a precise date for the painting is challenging. However, Dancers is thought to be related to an 1888 George William Thornley lithograph. New findings from technical analysis provide definitive proof of the relationship between the original painting and the lithograph. Important discoveries from this analysis suggest that the artist could have initiated the painting more than a decade before the 1888 lithograph.
This presentation was created for the Art Technological Source Research Working Group of ICOM-CC during the 19th ICOM-CC Virtual Triennial Conference, Beijing 2021, on the theme of Transcending Boundaries: Integrated Approaches to Conservation.
The research described focuses on the painting Dancers Practicing in the Foyer (Edgar Degas, NY Carlsberg Glyptotek) and was a collaborative project of the Getty Conservation Institute, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Glyptotek, funded in part by the Carlsberg Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Museum Paintings Council.”
